Essex picks up top national transport award

Essex County Council’s commitment to deliver a first class transportation system has been recognised with one of the country’s top transport awards.

Essex County Council was named Transport Local Authority of the Year at the 2017 National Transport Awards on 12 October.

Essex County Council was named winner of the award from a shortlist which also contained the City of London Corporation, Gateshead Council, Glasgow City Council, Gloucestershire County Council and the London Boroughs of Bromley and Waltham Forest.

The awards’ judges were impressed by a number of success stories in the county including:

• Securing accreditation for Essex Highways, recognising its partnership working and management of its highways assets worth more than £10 billion.
• Strategic and collaborative working with Highways England to plan for key infrastructure that will unlock further economic growth for Essex.
• Securing £200m of South East Local Enterprise Partnership funding.
• Increasing levels of bus passenger satisfaction across the county.
• The introduction of an improved online tool available for reporting highways issues.
• The rollout of new ‘smart’ LED streetlights.

Cllr Kevin Bentley, deputy leader at Essex County Council, said:

“This award is a well-deserved recognition of the work that often goes unseen by the public, but is crucial to ensuring our roads and transport infrastructure can support the growing number of businesses, jobs and housing available in Essex.

“Our teams work tirelessly with partners to keep Essex moving and to secure the funding that allows us to build roads and infrastructure for the future.

“This award is a sign our innovative approach to deliver a first class transportation system for Essex is working.”

Cllr Ian Grundy, Essex County Council cabinet member for highways, added:

“I am absolutely delighted that the hard work and dedication of our highways and transportation staff has been recognised with this top honour.

“It is brilliant for this work to be praised on a national stage, but we won’t rest on our laurels. We are responsible for more than 5,000 miles of roads in Essex and we will continue to work innovatively to deliver more for less for Essex taxpayers.”

16 October 2017